Cilia: Tiny Cell Structures With Mighty Functions – Biomedical Beat Blog – National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Cilia: Tiny Cell Structures With Mighty Functions – Biomedical Beat Blog – National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Cilia: Tiny Cell Structures With Mighty Functions

BY CHRIS PALMER AND BARBARA VANN

Credit: Zvonimir Dogic, Brandeis University.

Imagine an army of tiny soldiers stationed throughout your body, lining cells from your brain to every major organ system. Rather than standing at attention, this tiny force sweeps back and forth thousands of times a minute. Their synchronized action helps move debris along the ranks to the nearest opening. Other soldiers stand as sentries, detecting changes in your environment, relaying that information to your brain, and boosting your senses of taste, smell, sight, and hearing.

Your brain may be the commander in chief, but these rank-and-file soldiers are made up of microscopic cell structures called cilia (cilium in singular).

Here we describe these tiny but mighty cell structures in action.